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Taylor 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition V-Class - Natural

6-string Acoustic Guitar with Torrefied Sitka Spruce Top, Neo-Tropical Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, and Ebony Fingerboard - Natural
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Taylor 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition V-Class - Natural
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Taylor's 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition

With its unique round-shoulder dreadnought silhouette, revolutionary V-Class Bracing, and dramatically different tonal personality, Taylor's 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition blazes new ground for Taylor. Featuring premium all-solid tonewoods — neo-tropical mahogany for the back and sides and a torrefied Sitka spruce top — this alluring acoustic guitar delivers a seductively bold and versatile tonal profile. As your eyes drink in this instrument's understated elegance, your hands savor its flawless playability while your ears revel in its warm, rich, organic tone. The 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition is a feast for the senses.

Grand Pacific: innovation and evolution

With the Grand Pacific, Taylor master luthier Andy Powers has fulfilled the potential of V-Class bracing as a robust tone-shaping platform. The Grand Pacific demonstrates proof-of-concept that V-Class architecture is an ideal cornerstone for guitars with a versatile range of musical personalities that will appeal to a broad swath of players cross-genre. Inspired by the diverse acoustic guitar sounds on the records he heard while growing up in Southern California, Andy set out to diversify Taylor’s tonal palette by designing a guitar with a different sound profile.

A bold new round-shoulder guitar from Taylor

Although V-Class bracing gave Andy more ways to control a guitar's tonal character, Andy also knew a new body shape would be required, something with roughly the dimensions of a dreadnought. With V-Class, he could eliminate the undesirable sonic characteristics generally ascribed to dreadnoughts. All this led to the round-shoulder dreadnought design Taylor calls the Grand Pacific. The Grand Pacific’s overall sound is warm and seasoned, producing notes that overlap more to create a smooth, blended sound. Its wider waist delivers more low-frequency power; the problematic low-end woodiness often associated with dreadnoughts being eliminated by the V-Class bracing.

V-Class Bracing: a sonic revelation

Bracing is the internal framework of an acoustic guitar that helps shape its sound. Although X-bracing has been standard in acoustic guitars for over a century, it creates an innate conflict between two key elements of a guitar’s sound: volume and sustain. The guitar's top (its soundboard) contributes to both. The flexibility of the top generates volume (projection), while its stiffness generates sustain. And with X-braced guitar tops, here's where the trade-off comes in: when something is made stiffer, its flexibility is reduced (and vice versa).

V-Class bracing changes all that. With Taylor's V-Class bracing, an acoustic guitar top can be both stiff and flexible — for more volume and sustain. V-Class bracing provides stiffness parallel to the strings for more rigidity and hence sustain. Flexibility on either side generates the air movement necessary for robust projection. It's the best of both worlds. This groundbreaking innovation also improves intonation; not only producing notes that are louder and with longer sustain — but more in tune with each other. Guitarists at Sweetwater are gobsmacked. But don't take our word for it — pick up the superb Taylor 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition and experience it for yourself!

Taylor master luthier Andy Powers

Exceptional tonewoods

Mahogany is treasured for its punchy midrange bloom and strongly focused, earthy, and somewhat dry fundamental without a preponderance of ringing overtones. An acoustic guitar with mahogany back and sides easily in a track, which is why engineers and studio guitarists tend to prefer "hogs" for tracking. The 517 Grand Pacific features back and sides of solid, responsibly sourced Neo-Tropical mahogany and a top of torrefied solid Sitka spruce with Taylor's tone-enhancing V-Class bracing, which takes the guitar's native versatility to an entirely new level. The torrefication process thermally cures the wood to deliver a more played-in tone, and together with the V-Class bracing, gives you a highly responsive and expressive instrument with increased dynamic range, robust projection and sustain, and harmonic synergy when chording up the entire fingerboard.

Taylor 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition Acoustic Guitar Features:

  • Neo-Tropical mahogany body with Silent Satin finish
  • Torrefied Sitka spruce top with V-Class Bracing
  • Compound Carve tropical mahogany neck with satin finish
  • 15"-radius West African ebony fingerboard with 20 frets, Grained Ivoroid Arrowhead inlays, and wood binding
  • 25.5" scale length
  • Wood binding; black sapele/maple single-ring rosette
  • West African ebony bridge, pins; Micarta saddle
  • 1.75" black graphite nut
  • Taylor Nickel tuners
  • Dual-action truss rod, headstock access

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Tech Specs

  • String Type: Steel
  • Number of Strings: 6
  • Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
  • Body Shape: Round Shoulder Dreadnought
  • Back & Sides Wood: Tropical Mahogany
  • Top Wood: Torrified Sitka Spruce
  • Finish: Satin
  • Color: Natural
  • Body Bracing: V-Class Mahogany
  • Binding: Sapele
  • Neck Wood: Tropical Mahogany
  • Neck Shape: Compound Carve
  • Radius: 15"
  • Fingerboard Material: West African Ebony
  • Fingerboard Inlay: Grained Ivoroid Arrowheads
  • Number of Frets: 20
  • Scale Length: 25.5"
  • Nut Width: 1.75"
  • Nut/Saddle Material: Black Graphite/Micarta
  • Bridge Material: West African Ebony
  • Tuning Machines: Taylor Nickel
  • Strings: D'Addario XS Phosphor Bronze, .013-.056
  • Case Included: Hardshell Case
  • Manufacturer Part Number: A50203400000575S216

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

Excellent Bluegrass Machine

I played D-28s, HD-28s, Blueridge BR-140s, etc. all in search of a new dreadnought to torch bluegrass classics with. The 517 has proven to best them all in tone and playability (and, unlike most Martin boxes, arrived with a usable setup).

The Grand Pacific also stands apart as a gigging/recording instrument-- the V class bracing deadens the "poof" you get when plucking most dreadnoughts without sacrificing on volume or low-end sustain, making it far easier to mic up than my Martin D-15M. All in all, an excellent instrument.

Add in that Taylor is transitioning to being an employee-owned business and it's an easy choice.
Music background: Bluegrass Musician
Rated 5/5

Gorgeous New Taylor Acoustic...

So, I've been in the market for a Mahogany back & sides / Spruce top, Dreadnaught-styled guitar, for a few months now, and it came down to three choices / options: this Taylor 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition V-Class - Natural, being one of them. The other two being: a brand new, standard, current production, Martin D-18, and believe it or not, a Collings D1HT (with a Torrefied / baked / cooked Sitka Spruce Top (same exact process as the Taylor 517 and 717). Believe it or not, while the Martin and Collings had a bit more boom and lower-end bass going on, the Taylor 517 Grand Pacific Builder's Edition V-Class has a lot more of an elegant, original, unique, aesthetically pleasing, innovative, harmonious, very well-balanced & rounded, versatility, with sweet highs, subtle mids, and still, low lows, but not like Rosewood lows, hence Mahogany, going for it. Plus, the Collings was scary expensive, with very few upgrades, inlays, perks, incentives, or even customer service. I am not suggesting that this Taylor is BETTER than a Collings, but I am suggesting that it's certainly a better match / choice / fit for my needs, and for what I was looking for in a high-quality, made in the USA, acoustic guitar, which will be used primarily for songwriting, recording, and inspiration. A beautiful, patterned, plush, hard shell case also comes with the Taylor 517 (Mahogany) and 717 (Rosewood) models. And as always, nothing but the absolute finest, A+, customer service and support by Sweetwater. Thanks again, Jon and Dave.
Music background: Extensive...
Rated 5/5

So happy I got it!

Got this a few months ago and honestly I couldnt be happier. Tone, wood, all that is great as you can see in the specs, but just the way that it feels and sounds and the way your body forms around it, it cant be explained. Again, only had it for a few months but Im already more attached to it than any other guitar I have.
Rated 5/5

My 2nd Taylor, is one of my favorites

My first was one I purchased at a bix box store in Miami, in 1997, it was a '96 714. I didn't play it much and sold it 21 years later. Fast forward to my Youtube watching in 2019, and Taylor introduces their x17 models. Sloped shoulder, longer scale length, new bracing, first Taylor guitar designed around the new bracing, and a new sound for this "modern" guitar company. It just arrived today - so my impressions are very recent.

I'll admit, they have a winner. It doesn't sound like a Gibson, it sounds like a Taylor but a smidge darker, a little more even in the midrange, maybe a little rolled off the top end, with the bottom kept in check. I don't record but this guitar would likely excel in the studio.

After having more than a few Gibsons come through my shop, it is a real pleasure to see the attention to detail and overall build quality of this instrument. It arrived from IN to GA, and was in tune. I mean, what guitar arrives in tune?

It has a sound all it's own, and it's fantastic. Fun and inspiring to play and I may just try to play this in public, for other people to enjoy too!
Music background: Bedroom picker since 1985
Rated 4.5/5

1st Impressions of my 517

Well I've had this new Grand pacific model now for a couple of weeks, The guitar needed very little set-up work to fit my playing style and it arrived quickly, and in prefect condition, which is typical for Sweetwater.

The guitar has a wonderful projection and clear tones, I'm attempting to get used to the satin finish which is slippery to me for some reason this is my only real issue with this new instrument, every thing else is very nice. I'm quite impressed with these new Taylor's. This is my second with the new bracing, the other guitar is a 514ce, and that guitar is awesome for finger style.

Congrats to Taylor for making these wonderful guitars and to Sweetwater for being a great place to purchase them.
Music background: 30 year hobbist

As one of the nation's top Taylor Guitars dealers, Sweetwater receives regular on-site training from Bob, Andy, and the rest of the Taylor crew. We're also, many of us, Taylor players ourselves, and we're happy to steer you in the right direction once you're ready to make the leap. New to Taylor? Our Find Your Fit guide simplifies Taylor body shapes, woods, and series. Longtime player? Our Taylor Custom Shop, annual limited editions, and in-house mods offer a level of exclusivity you won't find in stores. Whatever your pleasure, Sweetwater's climate-controlled warehouse and 55-point Inspection ensure your Taylor guitar arrives ready to play just as the manufacturer intended.

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